Emma S. Ransom

Emma S. Connor Ransom (August 8, 1864 — May 15, 1943) was an American educator and clubwoman, active in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association).

Emma S. Ransom
Emma S. Ransom, from a 1924 publication.
Born
Emma Sarah Connor

August 8, 1864
Selma, Ohio
DiedMay 15, 1943
Wilberforce, Ohio
NationalityAmerican
Occupationclubwoman, administrator
Years active1895-1943
Known forchair of the Colored Women's YWCA in New York City, from 1909 to 1924
Spouse(s)Reverdy C. Ransom (married 1886)

Early life

Emma Sarah Connor (or Conner) was born in Selma, Ohio. She trained as a teacher at Wilberforce University as a young woman.[1]

Career

Ransom was an AME Church minister's wife after 1886, and moved to various cities with his work. She spoke to the annual meeting of the Woman's Mite Missionary Society in Cleveland in 1895, about mission work by African-American women in Africa.[2] She addressed the Illinois Federation of Colored Women's Clubs in 1903, speaking on voting rights.[3]

She moved to New York City when her husband became pastor of Bethel AME Church in 1907, and soon became involved in suffrage work and other women's club activities in the city. She spoke to the Equal Suffrage League in Brooklyn in 1908, at the invitation of Verina Morton Jones.[1] From 1908 to 1911, she was president of the New York state branch of the Woman's Mite Missionary Society.[4][5][6]

In 1909, Ransom was elected chair of the Colored Women's Branch of the YWCA,[7] on 137th Street in Harlem,[8] and served on the leadership board of the branch until 1924,[9][10] working with Cecelia Cabaniss Saunders as general secretary.[11] Ransom negotiated a $100,000 building fund for the branch.[1][12] The program's residential component, including a cafeteria, meeting spaces, and an auditorium, was named the Emma Ransom House in her honor.[13][14] In 1913, she presided over a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation at the YWCA.[15] She also served on the Metropolitan Board of the YWCA in New York, and was the first black woman to hold a seat on that citywide board.[16][17]

In 1938, Emma S. Ransom was awarded an honorary doctorate by Wilberforce University.[18]

Personal life

Emma S. Connor married Reverdy C. Ransom in 1886, as his second wife. They raised two sons, Harold and Reverdy Jr.[19] She died in 1943, from a stroke, in Wilberforce, Ohio.[20][21] Reverdy C. Ransom's papers are archived at Emory University,[22] and at Reverdy C. Ransom Memorial Library, Payne Theological Seminary.[23]

References
  1. Judith Weisenfeld, African American Women and Christian Activism: New York's Black YWCA, 1905-1945 (Harvard University Press 1997): 56-58, 103. ISBN 9780674007789
  2. "Colored Women's Mites" Pittsburgh Daily Post (July 6, 1895): 2. via Newspapers.com
  3. "Declares Negro Will Fight Rather than Lose His Vote" Chicago Tribune (August 21, 1903): 3. via Newspapers.com
  4. John Russell Hawkins, Centennial Encyclopedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Volume 1 (AME Church 1916): 330.
  5. "Afro-American Notes" The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (March 20, 1909): 15. via Newspapers.com
  6. "Mite Society Convention" The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (September 16, 1909): 10.
  7. "Women Work for Y. W. C. A." The New York Age (November 30, 1916): 1. via Newspapers.com
  8. "Colored Women's Branch Y. W. C. A." The New York Age (November 10, 1923): 7. via Newspapers.com
  9. "The Horizon" The Crisis (December 1924): 72.
  10. "Mrs. Ransom Retiring as 'Y' Committee Chairman to be Honored by Branch" The New York Age (August 30, 1924): 10. via Newspapers.com
  11. Directory of Social Agencies of New York (Charity Organization Society of the City of New York 1921): 319.
  12. Judith Weisenfeld, "The Harlem YWCA and the Secular City, 1904-1945"] Journal of Women's History 6(3)(January 1994): 62-78. DOI: 10.1353/jowh.2010.0312
  13. Jennifer Scanlon, Until There Is Justice: The Life of Anna Arnold Hedgeman (Oxford University Press 2016): 56-57. ISBN 9780190248604
  14. "First Year's Operation of Emma Ransom House, Y. W. C. A. Hotel, Connected with 137th Street Branch, Shows Fine Results" The New York Age (February 12, 1927): 1. via Newspapers.com
  15. "New York Women Hold Emancipation Exercises" New York Age (January 2, 1913): 1. via Newspapers.com
  16. "Mrs. Ransom Now on Metropolitan Board" The New York Age (December 20, 1919): 1. via Newspapers.com
  17. "Wheatley Y. W. to Hear Ohioan" The Indianapolis Star (December 11, 1933): 4. via Newspapers.com
  18. "Ohio Senator Gets Degree at Wilberforce" Dayton Daily News (June 9, 1938): 14. via Newspapers.com
  19. "Mrs. Ransom Rites Tuesday" The Journal Herald (May 16, 1943): 4. via Newspapers.com
  20. Annetta Louise Gomez-Jefferson, The Sage of Tawawa: Reverdy Cassius Ransom, 1861-1959 (Kent State University Press 2002): 27-28, 107, 212, 225. ISBN 9780873387484
  21. "Death Takes Mrs. Ransom, AME Leader" Chicago Defender (May 22, 1943): 22. via ProQuest
  22. Reverdy C. Ransom collection, 1936-1975, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.
  23. Reverdy C. Ransom Papers, Reverdy C. Ransom Memorial Library, Payne Theological Seminary.
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